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Thursday, August 26, 2010

Researchers at Big Bear Solar Observatory have tuned their adaptive optics array and achieved first light, capturing this image of a sunspot that is now the most detailed ever captured in visible light. The image was captured with Big Bear’s New Solar Telescope (NST), a brand new instrument (as the name implies) with a resolution of just 50 miles on the sun’s surface.

The NST is the precursor to an even-larger telescope, the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST), which will be constructed over the next decade, allowing Big Bear researchers to build a new kind of adaptive optics system known as multi-conjugate adaptive optics, that should provide them with a clear, distortion-free means of observing the sun from Earth in unrivaled detail.

In the meantime, NST will collect incredibly detailed images of solar phenomena like this that should help researchers understand the complexities of solar weather and its impact on the space climate in our neighborhood of the solar system.

August 23rd, 2010GPS tracking, cell-network tracking, immobilizers, and secure key fobs are all common these days, but what if you were to roll all of the anti-theft technology available on the market into a single car? Would it be possible to theft-proof it? This infographic attempts to answer that question. The proposed "theft proof" car packs in everything but the cops themselves. Combining GPS tracking, GSM cellular remote fuel cutoff and communication, biometric secure ignition tech, a keyless alarm system, a passive immobilizer, ultrasonic interior monitoring, and a radio-frequency transmitter to signal the car's location to police, the "theft proof" car certainly looks very, very had to steal at the least. There are banks that would be easier to rob and get away from. In addition to the high-tech proposal, the infographic contains some key stats about car theft in the U.S., so spend a few minutes and figure out if it's worth the trouble to make your car a mobile anti-theft command center. Then let us know what you think in the comments below. Follow the jump below to see the full infographic. Research by Home Security.net [Home Security

GPS tracking, cell-network tracking, immobilizers, and secure key fobs are all common these days, but what if you were to roll all of the anti-theft technology available on the market into a single car? Would it be possible to theft-proof it? This infographic attempts to answer that question.

The proposed "theft proof" car packs in everything but the cops themselves. Combining GPS tracking, GSM cellular remote fuel cutoff and communication, biometric secure ignition tech, a keyless alarm system, a passive immobilizer, ultrasonic interior monitoring, and a radio-frequency transmitter to signal the car's location to police, the "theft proof" car certainly looks very, very had to steal at the least. There are banks that would be easier to rob and get away from.

In addition to the high-tech proposal, the infographic contains some key stats about car theft in the U.S., so spend a few minutes and figure out if it's worth the trouble to make your car a mobile anti-theft command center. Then let us know what you think in the comments below.

It's a popular dieting secret: Drink more water, and you'll shed more pounds. Finally, science is adding weight to the practice.

After about three months, a new study found, obese dieters who drank two cups of water before each meal lost 5 pounds more than a group of dieters who didn't increase their water intake. A year later, the water-drinkers had also kept more of the weight off.

The study included only middle-aged and older adults, but other studies suggest that drinking water might help dieters of all ages, said Brenda Davy, a nutrition researcher at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. After years of folklore, she added, this may be the first hard evidence that pounding water is viable weight-loss strategy.

"It's this popular idea that, oh yeah, drink more water -- that's what you have to do when you want to lose weight," said Davy, who presented her new findings today at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston. "It seems to be logical, but it had never really been investigated."

Davy and colleagues reported one of their first findings in 2008 in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. That study found that older adults who drank two cups of water half an hour before breakfast ate about 75 fewer calories -- or 13 percent less -- than a comparable group who hadn't drunk water before the meal. People in both groups were overweight or obese, and all were allowed to eat as much of the food as they wanted.

To see if that behavior would lead to actual weight loss, the researchers started by putting more than 40 overweight and obese adults on a diet. The dieters, all between the ages of 55 and 75, were instructed to eat healthy meals that totaled no more than 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day.

Half of the dieters were randomly assigned to drink a 16-ounce bottle of water before all three meals. The others received water but were not given any instructions about when or how to drink it.

Twelve weeks later, the water drinkers had lost an average of 15.5 pounds, compared to an average 11-pound loss in the other group. That's a 44 percent boost in weight loss, just from drinking water.

Davy's experiments have failed to find the same effect in younger adults, possibly because the gastrointestinal tract empties more slowly as we age, so water might lead to a longer-lasting feeling of fullness in older people.

But water might still work as a diet aid for younger people -- just in different ways. One year-long study, for example, found that younger dieters who reported drinking more than a liter of water a day lost a little more weight than dieters who drank less water.

The reason could be physical. According to some research, water consumption might spark the body to produce more heat, boosting metabolism and burning more calories. Or, drinking more water might simply make people less likely to drink a lot of high-calorie sugar-filled beverages, said Barry Popkin, director of the Interdisciplinary Obesity Program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

In hundreds of studies, Popkn said, people eat just as much food no matter how many calories they drink. And Americans are now drinking an average of 235 calories a day -- far more than ever before.

Davy's findings need to be repeated, Popkin added, before doctors can confidently tell dieters that downing water will boost their efforts. But it can't hurt to keep a water bottle nearby, especially if that helps you take in less soda, juice, energy drinks and other caloric beverages.

"Water is by far the healthiest beverage, and if you can't drink water, then drink unsweetened tea, coffee, diet beverages or for kids, low-fat milk," Popkin said. "The fewer calories we get from beverages, the healthier we're going to be."

The app allows users to search, watch and discuss 1,800 web shows (there are about 200,000 episodes in all), and download and watch 12,000 additional shows from iTunes () — though you could obviously do that last part on your iPhone already.

Clicker () also claims that it will soon support both Hulu Plus and Netflix on the iPhone, although you’ll need the Hulu Plus and Netflix apps to actually watch those videos, a Clicker rep told us. The Netflix app isn’t even available in the app store yet, but Clicker plans to add Hulu Plus to the iPhone-specific index “sometime later this quarter,” though that last bit depends on Hulu Plus graduating from its testing phase.

Clicker previously maintained a web-based list of videos formatted in HTML5 for the iPhone and iPad, but a native app should prove much easier to use.

It’s not just about browsing and watching the videos, either. The Clicker app allows you to check in to shows Philo or Foursquare ()-style, see your friends’ activity in a news feed, check out what shows are trending, and see who (friends or others) is currently watching various shows.

A Clicker rep said that the “goal is to augment the Clicker.com experience,” so you can also browse content that’s not playable on your mobile device, as well as manage your Clicker playlist remotely. If a friend recommends a show but it’s not available on mobile, you can still make a note of it in the app and watch it when you get to a laptop or a desktop computer.

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There's a big difference between the iPhone 4 and Galaxy S. No, not iOS vs. Android 2.1 or even Retina vs. Super AMOLED. We're talking batteries: one is removable and one isn't -- guess which is which? This perennial iPhone "feature" has spawned as entire industry of device-specific accessories that sate the need for more juice while simultaneously killing the form (and aesthetic) of an otherwise pocketable gadget. But hey, it's your only choice when you're either too busy (CES) or unable (intercontinental flights) to tether yourself to a power socket. And guess what? Those curvy battery packs that hugged your iPhone 3G/3GS won't work with the boxy iPhone 4. So, here's the latest, and one of the first iPhone 4 cases with an extended battery pack to ship. The Mili PowerSpring 4 starts shipping today for £54.99 (or $85 on Amazon). It claims to be the world's thinnest iPhone 4 battery pack to double your battery life thanks to a 1600mAh capacity Li-Pol battery. That makes this roadwarrior necessity just a bit less evil.

We knew this was coming and here it is: the Netflix application, heretofore reserved only for iPad users, has trickled down to iPhone and iPod touch devices. Version 1.1.0 makes the TV show and movie streaming app universal -- so long as your universe is known as iOS -- and looks to massively expand the available audience for Netflix's mobile effort. What are you waiting for, go get it already.

We've seen some extremely DIY auto-lacing sneakers, but it looks like the big boys -- Nike -- have thought about getting in on the game as well. Patent filings which occurred in early through late 2009 show off an automatic lacing system that is pretty reminiscent of Marty McFly's invention in Back to the Future, and we can tell you that from the looks of it, it's a future we'd definitely like to inhabit. The shoes appear to boast a charging system and lights in addition to the lacing component, and while so few patent apps ever lead to a real retail product, we're really rooting for this one. One more image below.

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Ian M. Sherwin Giclée

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All you art collectors out there. Here is a chance to get a Giclee copy of some of Ian M Sherwin work. Ian is planning on doing a whole series of Marblehead, Massachusetts paintings.His work is amazing.